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Saturday, July 5, 2014

Kuala Terengganu

Kuala Terengganu, a town at
the mouth of the Terengganu River is the state capital and the largest town in
Terengganu. With
area of 12,955 sq km and population of 1.2 million people (2011 estimate),
on which 95% are Malays, 5% are Chinese and the remainder is Indian and
other ethnics.

The Chinese, who made up about 5%, mostly
concentrated in Chinatown at Kampong China Road, Kuala Terengganu. It's the trade
Centre since early 13th Century. However, the Chinatown is first
established by the Chinese community in the late 19th century.

It was once a hub for commercial
activities that help shape Kuala Terengganu into what it is today. The Chinese
built the traditionally designed shop houses according to their place of origin
in China. The buildings have been declared a heritage site by the United
Nations.

Terengganu mean literally
in Chinese“have
long term perspective and aim for higher achievement.” An earlier traditional Chinese
name had the meaning “slavery from childbirth.” Because of this, the local Chinese
appeal to the local government to change to the existing one.

Traditionally, the Chinese name for Terengganu has been "丁加奴",
which is a direct transliteration of the Malay name.However,
some Chinese in Terengganu raised objections to the name, citing that the
characters used loosely translate to “bring a child into the world to be a slave" (添丁加做奴).

As a result, they petitionedtheregulatory
commission for Chinese language in Malaysiato change the
Chinese name for the state to "登嘉楼" , which can be loosely translated to
"step up advance to next higher levels". It wasn’t until September
2004 that such attempt was finally successful.

The successful attempt, however, add
nothing to the Chinese culture. It’s worth nothing and do not have any meaning
to that society because the new name has been in use unofficially by the local
Chinese society for not less than 30 years.

Some
segments of the Chinese society and
those whoopposed the name change base their opposition largely on
the fact that the new name contains too many character strokes, making the
writing much more difficult.

They proposed the
name reverted back to the version used before the year 2004, but changing the
word “slavery” (奴), the main cause of the
controversy to the more positive similar sounding word “perseverance”(努).